Prize Winner At The London Weather Centre

Kat - Three weeks ago we had Alex Hill from the London Weather Centre on the show who talked about how to predict the weather. The prize winners were Richard Fusniak and his granddaughter Jasmine. So they went down to the London Weather Centre and learned how to do their own weather report. So here making her radio debut and braving the winds of London is ten year old Jasmine.

Jasmine - Hello. I'm Jasmine Watts from Cambridge, broadcasting live from London Weather Centre. Here is the forecast for today for the south of England. Here in London it will be a cloudy afternoon. The temperatures will be thirteen Celcius and 55 Fahrenheit. This weather will be warmer than yesterday and the rainy showers will be mostly in the Midlands later today. That's today's weather and back to the studio.

Kat - And that was Jasmine who's doing her first weather report. So hopefully you'll make it as a weather presenter!

SEX, DRUGS AND DNA - Dr Michael Stebbins, Director of Biology Policy for the Federation of American Scientists

Chris - Now we're going to be joined by Michael Stebbins who will be doing a talk in Cambridge this week. Now Michael, you've called your talk Sex, Drugs and DNA after this pretty impressive book you've written. Tell us about what you'll be covering in your talk and why it's so important.

Michael - The talk is going to be about the book and some of the topics within it. I usually leave it up to the audience to choose to talk about sex, but it covers stem cells, global warming, intelligent design, bioterrorism, contraception, the drug industry and healthcare.

Chris - So a pretty controversial index of problems then.

Michael - yes, and it really explains the science behind each one of these things and exposes the liars and miscreants who have been pushing policies that are against what we know about science.

Chris - To what extent is this going to be relevant to people in the UK because that's what people are going to be asking. It's great that you're coming to the UK to talk about this, although intelligent design is more of an issue in the US than in the UK.

Michael - Well I'm not so sure that intelligent design is just a US problem. It seems to be spreading although it is centred in the US at this point. Certainly the other issues relevant in the US really do end up cropping up in the UK and Europe. The US ends up being a weather bell for what's going to be happening in Europe. I think a lot of the issues, including stem cells for example, are controversial in both places. And the drug industry most recently has also been quite controversial in the UK.

Chris - Well look Michael, I'm really looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday. Should be a good lid lifting exercise.